The present invention relates generally to refrigerators of the type wherein the high-side components of the refrigeration system are arranged in a machinery compartment which is generally isolated from the food storage compartment of the refrigerator.
In many refrigerators, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,156,352 Gelbard et al assigned to the General Electric Company, the assignee of the present invention, a motor compressor and a condenser are mounted in a machinery compartment at the bottom of a cabinet and a fan is provided for circulating air through the compartment and over the components. While the arrangement of locating the high-side refrigerator components in a single machinery compartment is an acceptable way of isolating the heat generating components from the food compartment being refrigerated, it has some drawbacks. Generally, the size of the machinery compartment is kept at a minimum so that maximum cabinet space may be devoted to the refrigerated portion of the cabinet. Placing all of the high-side components in a relatively small compartment poses certain manufacturing problems in securing individual components. In part, this has been solved in some instances by creating unitary assemblies such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,329, wherein the compressor, condenser and an air circulating means are mounted on a supporting member which is adapted to be inserted into and removed from the refrigerator machinery compartment. It has also been common practice to direct condensate water from the evaporator to a condensate collection pan located in the machinery compartment where it may be evaporated by the circulating air over the relatively warm high-side refrigerator components to raise its temperature. In producing refrigerators having different capacities, it is necessary that different compressors and condensers be provided for each capacity refrigerator. Further, this also may require that the dimensions of the machinery compartment for each capacity be different. This results in manufacturing a separate and completely different high-side system having a different capacity and/or configuration for each capacity refrigerator including the support structure. This results in the necessity of maintaining a number of separate unitary high-side refrigerant components assembly for each capacity or model refrigerator which is costly and space consuming.